AMP adviser banned for charging dishonest fees

An authorised representative of AMP-owned Charter Financial Planning has received a permanent ban after the corporate regulator found he had dishonestly charged fees for advice he did not provide.

Brenton John Poynter was an authorised representative of Charter Financial Planning from June 2010 until June 2016, during which time he provided superannuation advice to a number of elderly clients.

The regulator found that between January 2015 and June 2016, Mr Poynter deducted $39,700 in fees from 10 clients, and instructed three clients to deposit a total of $26,990 into his personal bank account for advice he had not provided.

According to the regulator, Charter Financial Planning and Mr Poynter’s Baulkham Hills practice have refunded the fees after conducting an internal investigation of Mr Poynter’s conduct.

The banning is part of ASIC’s Wealth Management Project, which the regulator established in 2014 to “lift the standards of the major financial advice providers”, which includes NAB, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Macquarie, and AMP.